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| Defending world champion in heptathlon Tatyana Chernova of Russia. (Getty Images) |
Making inroads in a season can happen at any moment, but when the summer of 2013 becomes just a distant memory, this past week could be the time which many track and field athletes look back on as the days that proved the key.
National championships normally have two criteria: selection for that year's major event and the honour of being the best in the country,
But equally, it is important to save a bit for what is ahead, this time being the IAAF World Championships in Moscow which start on August 10.
If that is the case, the performances of Tatyana Chernova, James Dasaolu, Jimmy Vicaut and Teddy Tamgho since Thursday of last week have signs that Europe will be making its mark in style once more on the world stage.
Chernova could be one of the biggest stars of the World Championships in her home country. And while the pressure will be on her to defend the heptathlon crown she won in Daegu in 2011, she is showing good form and now her progression towards Moscow is happening in style.
At the Universiade in Kazan, Chernova moved to the top of the world rankings with a victory with 6623 points and she has installed herself as favourite for the title.
When she won in South Korea, she did so with 6680 and then in London last summer, she achieved bronze with 6628 as Great Britain's Jessica Ennis took the title with 6955.
Ennis has not competed at a major event since and she missed her country's trials in Birmingham. She might be in Moscow, but it is not definite in her long recovery from injury. But now, over these past few days, Chernova has shown she will be the woman to beat.
The 100m might be the talk of world athletics for all the wrong reasons at the moment but this weekend saw a dramatic breakthrough for two men who could now challenge the European record of 9.86 which Portugal's Francis Obikwelu set at the Olympics in Athens almost nine years ago.
In Birmingham, Britain's Dasaolu ran 9.91 and in Paris, Vicaut twice stopped the clock at 9.95.
Breaking that 10-second mark is a huge step and for Dasaolu, it was his sixth successive personal best performance.
Like the Briton, Vicaut made his mark at the national championships as the Frenchman beat Christophe Lemaitre, the double European champion, who was second in 10.19.
And Vicaut insisted: 'There is still work to do technically to Moscow.'
Everything is building towards the World Championships, but this weekend saw such major inroads for Dasaolu and Vicaut.
Now they will have the confidence to know they have broken the key barrier of their event and no matter what happens in Moscow, the prospect of their clash, along with Lemaitre, at next summer's European Athletics Championships in Zurich is thrilling now, even more than a year away.
Tamgho's build-up towards Moscow has been impressive but the French triple jump world indoor record-holder has taken his progress to the next level this weekend.
He won in Paris with a windy 17.49m - his furthest distance of the summer - and had a legal 17.45m.
'I'm on the right path,' said Tamgho. 'I slowly approach 17.50m.'
Moscow could be the stage where that happens. It could take him to a medal. And if it does, like so many, the past few days will be among the most significant of the season.